I. Field of the Disclosure
The technology of the disclosure relates generally to debugging an electronic system.
II. Background
Mobile computing devices have become common in modern society. The prevalence of mobile computing devices may be attributed to the many functions that are enabled within such computing devices. Increasingly complex integrated circuits (ICs) have been designed and manufactured to provide increasingly greater functionality in mobile computing devices. In some cases, an entire system of a mobile computing device is integrated into a single IC known as a system-on-chip (SOC). In some other cases, the entire system of the mobile computing device is supported by multiple ICs that are packaged into an integrated module known as system-in-package (SIP).
ICs and mobile computing devices are repeatedly tested and debugged during different phases of their respective development life cycles in an effort to detect and eliminate potential errors before releasing the mobile computing devices to customers. While testing is a process for detecting suspected errors under specific conditions, debugging is a process used to investigate the exact causes of the suspected errors. A de facto debugging approach involves analyzing execution logs obtained under various test conditions from a device under test (DUT). In the case of debugging mobile computing devices and the ICs therein, established debugging methodologies and tools, such as joint test action group (JTAG) logging, serial wire debug (SWD), system trace, and universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) logging, are often employed. Each of these debugging methodologies is specifically designed to capture execution loggings under specific conditions from a specific circuit, component, and/or functional block in the DUT.
As the complexity of the mobile computing devices continues to increase and the size of the ICs continues to decrease, testing and debugging are becoming more cumbersome and time consuming. Accordingly, designers and developers of mobile computing devices require better testing and debugging tools.